Amid Tough Times, Rubinstein Remains Committed To Palm’s Success

Palm has
faced more than its fair share of setbacks in the past several months including
disappointing sales of the Pre
Plus and Pixi Plus with Verizon Wireless, revenue shortfalls, and rumors that
the company might be sold. Many people are wondering if Palm has a future, and
if so, what that future looks like. Recently, CEO Jon
Rubinstein sat down with Fortune's Adam Lashinsky and put his cards on
the table.

Rubinstein was relatively candid in
the interview, and admitted the smartphone maker has
"hit a speed bump." When asked about a potential buyout, Rubinstein
skirted the issue and said Palm has "$590 million in the bank" and
"a plan to take us to profitability." Even with some cash and a plan,
however, he admitted that the company will "have to be frugal to
survive."

When talking about the disappointing sales figures with the
Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on Verizon Wireless, Rubinstein suggested one of the
major failures was insufficient training of Verizon's in-store sales staff. To
help with this issue, Rubinstein has dispatched brand ambassadors into Verizon stores to help
train the staff on webOS and Palm products.

Many people are wondering if Palm has a new phone or a major
update for WebOS as part of its plan to survive. Rubinstein wouldn't give any specifics
during the interview, but he did say that Palm is continuing to invest in engineering
for both WebOS and new product development. He also defended WebOS, calling it
"arguably the best mobile operating system out there," and pointed
out that it offers "real multitasking," capabilities to share and
edit video, Synergy, and immersive 3D gaming.

Rubinstein made it clear in the interview
that he believes Palm still has a good chance of turning things around and becoming
successful again. What do you think? Will the company survive on its own, or
will another company come along and buy them out? Would a new WebOS phone help
the company's chances of survival?